Minggu, 06 Januari 2013

Herbalism

Herbalism

Herbal medicine (or "herbalism") is the
study and use of medicinal properties of plants. The scope of
herbal medicine
is sometimes extended to include fungal and bee products, as well as minerals,
shells
and certain animal parts. Pharmacognosy is the study of all medicines that are
derived from natural sources.

Practitioners

A herbalist, Wahyu a.k. Yuwono from Kediri, gathers some plants to make a herbal medicine

A herbalist is:

A person whose life is dedicated to the
economic or medicinal uses of plants.

One skilled in the harvesting and collection
of medicinal plants (see wildcrafter).

Traditional Chinese herbalist: one who is
trained or skilled in the dispensing of herbal prescriptions; traditional
Chinese herb doctor. Similarly, Traditional Ayurvedic herbalist: one who
is trained or skilled in the dispensing of herbal prescriptions in the
Ayurvedic tradition.

One trained or skilled in the therapeutic use
of medicinal plants.

Herbalists must learn many
skills, including the wildcrafting or cultivation of herbs, diagnosis and
treatment of conditions or dispensing herbal medication, and preparations of
herbal medications. Education of herbalists varies considerably in different areas
of the world. Lay herbalists and traditional indigenous medicine
people generally rely upon apprenticeship and recognition from their
communities in lieu of formal schooling.

Government
regulations

The World Health Organization (WHO), the
specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is concerned with
international public health, published Quality control methods for medicinal
plant materials in 1998 in order to support WHO Member States in
establishing quality standards and specifications for herbal materials, within
the overall context of quality assurance and control of herbal medicines.

Some herbs, such as cannabis and coca, are outright
banned in most countries. Since 2004, the sales of ephedra as a
dietary supplement is prohibited in the United States by the Food and Drug
Administration.,and
subject to Schedule III restrictions in the United Kingdom.

Traditional
herbal medicine systems

Native Americans medicinally used
about 2,500 of the approximately 20,000 plant species that are native to North
America. With great accuracy, the plants they chose to use for medicine were in
those families of plants that modern phytochemical studies show contain the
most bioactive compounds.

Some researchers trained in both
western and traditional Chinese medicine have
attempted to deconstruct ancient medical texts in the light of modern science.
One idea is that the yin-yang balance, at least with regard to herbs,
corresponds to the pro-oxidant and anti-oxidant balance. This interpretation is
supported by several investigations of the ORAC ratings of various yin and
yang herbs.

In Ladakh, Lahul-Spiti and Tibet,
the Tibetan Medical System is
prevalent, which is also called as 'Amichi Medical System'. Over 337 species of
medicinal
plants has been documented by C.P. Kala those are used by Amchis - the
practitioners of this medical system.

In Tamil Nadu,
Tamils have their own medicinal system now popularly called the Siddha
medicinal system. The Siddha system is entirely in the Tamil
language. It contains roughly 300,000 verses covering diverse aspects of
medicine such as anatomy, sex ("kokokam" is the sexual treatise of
par excellence), herbal, mineral and metallic compositions to cure many
diseases that are relevant even to-day. Ayurveda is in Sanskrit, but
Sanskrit was not generally used as a mother tongue and hence its medines are
mostly taken from Siddha and other local traditions.

Herbal
philosophy and spiritual practices

As Eisenburg states in his book,
Encounters with Qi: “The
Chinese
and Western medical models are like two frames of reference in which identical
phenomena are studied. Neither frame of reference provides an unobstructed view
of health and illness. Each is incomplete and in need of refinement."
Specifically, the traditional Chinese medical model could effect change on the
recognized, and expected, phenomena of detachment to patients as people and
estrangement unique to the clinical and impersonal relationships between
patient and physician of the Western school of medicine.

Four approaches to the use of
plants as medicine include:

1. The magical/shamanic—Almost
all non-modern societies recognize this kind of use. The practitioner is
regarded as endowed with gifts or powers that allow him/her to use herbs in a
way that is hidden from the average person, and the herbs are said to affect
the spirit or soul of the person.

2. The energetic—This approach
includes the major systems of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and Unani. Herbs are
regarded as having actions in terms of their energies and affecting the
energies of the body. The practitioner may have extensive training, and ideally
be sensitive to energy, but need not have supernatural powers.

3. The functional dynamic—This
approach was used by early physiomedical practitioners, whose doctrine forms the
basis of contemporary practice in the UK. Herbs have a functional action, which
is not necessarily linked to a physical compound, although often to a
physiological function, but there is no explicit recourse to concepts involving
energy.

4. The chemical—Modern
practitioners - called Phytotherapists - attempt to explain herb actions in
terms of their chemical constituents. It is generally assumed that the specific
combination of secondary metabolites in the plant are responsible for the
activity claimed or demonstrated, a concept called synergy.

Herbalists tend to use extracts
from parts of plants, such as the roots or leaves but not isolate particular
phytochemicals.
Pharmaceutical medicine prefers single ingredients on the grounds that dosage
can be more easily quantified. It is also possible to patent single compounds,
and therefore generate income. Herbalists often reject the notion of a single
active ingredient, arguing that the different phytochemicals present in many
herbs will interact to enhance the therapeutic effects of the herb and dilute
toxicity.
Furthermore, they argue that a single ingredient may contribute to multiple
effects. Herbalists deny that herbal synergism can be duplicated with synthetic
chemicals. They argue that phytochemical interactions and trace components may
alter the drug response in ways that cannot currently be replicated with a
combination of a few putative active ingredients.
Pharmaceutical researchers recognize the concept of drug
synergism but note that clinical trials may be used to investigate the
efficacy of a particular herbal preparation, provided the formulation of that
herb is consistent.

In specific cases the claims of
synergy
and multifunctionality
have been supported by science. The open question is how widely both can be
generalized. Herbalists would argue that cases of synergy can be widely
generalized, on the basis of their interpretation of evolutionary history, not
necessarily shared by the pharmaceutical community. Plants are subject to
similar selection pressures as humans and therefore they must develop
resistance to threats such as radiation, reactive oxygen species and microbial
attack in order to survive.
Optimal chemical defenses have been selected for and have thus developed over
millions of years.
Human diseases are multifactorial and may be treated by consuming the chemical
defences that they believe to be present in herbs. Bacteria, inflammation,
nutrition and ROS (reactive oxygen species) may all play a role in arterial
disease.
Herbalists claim a single herb may simultaneously address several of these
factors. Likewise a factor such as ROS may underlie more than one condition. In
short herbalists view their field as the study of a web of relationships rather
than a quest for single cause and a single cure for a single condition.

In selecting herbal treatments
herbalists may use forms of information that are not applicable to pharmacists.
Because herbs can moonlight as vegetables, teas or spices they have a huge
consumer base and large-scale epidemiological studies become feasible.
Ethnobotanical studies are another source of information. For
example, when indigenous peoples from geographically dispersed areas use
closely related herbs for the same purpose that is taken as supporting evidence
for its efficacy. Herbalists
contend that historical medical records and herbals are underutilized
resources.
They favor the use of convergent information in assessing the medical value of
plants. An example would be when in-vitro activity is consistent with
traditional use.

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